EU should take stand on Burma

Today, the family and relatives of a former European honorary consul general and ardent pro-democracy supporter, who died last Saturday while under Burmese military imprisonment, will hold a memorial service in Australia. The ex-diplomat gave his life for Burma, the country he loved.

James Leader Nichols was arrested in April and sentenced to three years in jail just for owning two facsimile machines and a telephone without permission.

For many Burmese, however, fax machines and telephones are modern comforts that have been made available to them by technological advancement. Ironically, for Nichols, it meant a jail sentence meted out by a repressive regime.

The Burmese pro-democracy movement and Western diplomats strongly believe that Nichols' arrest and incarceration were politically motivated.

Since the release last July of popular leader and Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from six years of house arrest, the Burmese junta calling itself the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) has never ceased to take harsh measures and punitive actions to undermine her popular support and calls for democracy.

Despite Suu Kyi's open challenge against the regime, after her repeated pleas for dialog had been rejected, Slorc has ignored her and instead concentrated on harassing her supporters and members of her National League for Democracy.

Nichols, better known as Uncle Leo or simply Leo, is just the latest victim of the military regime which has ruled, as well as ruined, Burma without challenge since 1962.

The godfather of Suu Kyi, Leo was her faithful and devoted friend and both met for breakfast every Friday morning.

Last Thursday, Denmark -- one of a few Nordic and European countries which Nichols has served as their diplomatic representative -- initiated a call for European economic sanctions on Burma.

Danish Foreign Minister Niels Helveg Petersen said Denmark had placed sanctions against Burma on the agenda for the July 15 meeting of European Union foreign ministers.

Denmark along with Finland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, which had protested against Slorc following Nichols' arrest in April, have called for a formal explanation and an investigation into his death.

The EU has so far rendered only verbal support for democracy and human rights for the Burmese people and has been weak and inefficient in its past efforts to push for political change in Burma. It now has an opportunity to prove its words with deeds.

-- The Nation, Bangkok